EXEC SUMMARY: Hello from Ohio... I spoke with students at Kent State today... so Oliver Darcy at CPAC and Katie Pellico in NYC helped compile all of this news. Let's get to it! Welcome to March...
END OF A TELEVISION ERA | | Richard Plepler leaving HBO
After nearly 28 years with HBO, CEO Richard Plepler is saying goodbye. In a memo to colleagues on Thursday, Plepler did not give a specific reason for his departure, but it's clear that AT&T's takeover of HBO and the rest of WarnerMedia (including CNN) was a driving factor. In an internal memo, he said that "it is the right time for me to do so."
"Plepler's surprising announcement ends a historic era at America's pre-eminent cultural content factory," VF's Joe Pompeo wrote Thursday night.
The NYT's John Koblin and Edmund Lee said Plepler "had a strong hand in creating what is often referred to as television's second golden age."
Here's our full story by Oliver Darcy and Jill Disis...
AT&T's plan
News of Plepler's departure came just two days after an appeals court ended the lengthy court battle over AT&T's acquisition of WarnerMedia. But it had been in the works for weeks. John Stankey, the CEO of WarnerMedia, is widely expected to bring the HBO and Turner divisions together, possibly under former NBC exec Robert Greenblatt. (CNN is a unit of Turner.)
>> From Plepler's memo: "It has been the great joy of my professional life to share this ride with you over these many years. And the great honor of my professional life to be your CEO. I don't have the words to express my gratitude for the support and talent that made our success together possible. But suffice it to say, my love for this place, and for all of you, is deeply a part of me and will last a lifetime."
>> Stankey's statement: "Richard is one of the most successful executives in our industry and I have been fortunate to have his support over the last months. His vision, energy and passion helped to elevate HBO's brand to what it has become today..."
Lowry's perspective
Brian Lowry emails: The premium TV business has experienced what feels like a seismic change in short order: Chris Albrecht's exit from Starz, and now Plepler's decision to leave HBO. Both departures notably followed changes in ownership, with Lionsgate assuming control of Starz and AT&T acquiring WarnerMedia. There's also a direct connection, with Plepler having replaced Albrecht when he was fired in 2007 following an incident in Las Vegas that resulted in his arrest.
>> Plepler's departure continues a changing of the guard at the network, after longtime documentary chief Sheila Nevins left last year, ending her 38-year run...
HBO producers lamenting his departure
Lowry adds: Plepler is a master when it comes to wooing talent, and many took to Twitter to lament his departure, including "The Wire" producer David Simon -- who once compared HBO to the Medicis, in terms of supporting quality TV --and documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose next project, "The Inventor," lands in March. "Dismaying," Gibney wrote. "Richard is a great exec, powerful impresario and creative force."
Reports: David Levy leaving Turner
Oliver Darcy emails: Almost immediately after the news broke about Plepler's exit, The Information reported that another big change is coming. According to Jessica Toonkel, Turner president David Levy is also expected to depart WarnerMedia. WSJ reported the same. A WarnerMedia spokesperson declined to comment... Perhaps Levy wants to share the news himself...
--> Peter Kafka's latest: "AT&T's WarnerMedia shakeup tells you how it views the future of media..." | |
An exit interview: My podcast with Adam Moss
| | Adam Moss, New York Media's editor in chief, is leaving his post at the end of March. In this exit interview that we taped at his office, he discussed his decision to step down; his favorite covers; how the magazine transformed over his 15-year run; and where the magazine business is heading. Moss also has some words of wisdom for his successor, David Haskell. Listen to the pod via Apple, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, or your preferred app...
>> On Thursday the American Society of Magazine Editors announced that Moss is joining the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- TV exec Liz Gateley has joined Spotify as head of creative development to "help shape the company's original podcasting strategy..." (THR)
-- "LinkedIn is taking the plunge into podcasts," Natalie Jarvey reports, "with a weekly series focused on the role that work plays in people's lives." The show "Hello Monday" will be hosted by Jessi Hempel... The first guest will be Seth Meyers... (THR)
-- With Jason Witten returning to the Cowboys, ESPN needs a new "MNF" analyst... (Variety)
-- Page Six has 30 Rock insiders saying that Brian Williams "could move to a more prominent time slot, possibly replacing vet Chris Matthews at 7 p.m..." (Page Six)
What happened to Trump's sequel?!
Kevin Liptak's lead on his story about Trump's Hanoi heartbreak: "It was meant as the sequel to rival the original -- another far-flung encounter, laced with backslapping and friendly banter alongside the world's most ruthless dictator. Instead, President Trump's second meeting with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un ended in a most uncharacteristic fashion for a showman commander in chief: fizzle." Read on...
Trump's order to Kelly...
Summit? What summit? By Thursday evening, the biggest story in politics was this NYT scoop: "Trump Ordered Officials to Give Jared Kushner a Security Clearance."
Maggie Haberman's summary in 280 characters: "Trump said he played no role. So did Ivanka Trump. Abbe Lowell claimed in May 2018 Kushner went through a standard clearance process. In reality, per a contemporaneous Kelly memo, Trump ordered it to be given, overruling WH counsel concerns."
Haberman will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..."
FRIDAY PLANNER
-- Welcome to March! In like a lion?
-- Who will be the first Democrat to enter the 2020 race this month?
-- Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway will speak at CPAC on Friday morning...
-- Friday is Susan Zirinsky's first official day as president of CBS News, taking the reins from David Rhodes...
Greta going to Gray
Greta Van Susteren has joined Gray Television "as a national political analyst who will provide news operations at the company's TV stations with coverage of national and international political news," Variety's Brian Steinberg reported Thursday. Gray has about 150 stations across the country... Greta will also continue to work for VOA...
Facebook's bad summer?
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Facebook is facing a lot of data breach investigations right now. On Thursday the Irish Data Protection Commissioner said in a report that it has ten separate inquiries into Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp.
The Irish are Facebook's EU regulator because Facebook's Euro operations are headquartered there. The commissioner has enormous power, and we previously reported how it could issue Facebook with a multi-billion dollar fine.
The Irish Times reported Thursday that we are likely to learn the results of the investigations this summer...
>> Britain's information commissioner is also investigating. And here in the United States, WaPo reported last month that the FTC could smack Facebook with another multibillion dollar fine. But: A big fine could be good for Facebook. It might allow them to appear contrite and not allow the perception that they got off too easily...
YouTube disables comments on videos featuring minors
Oliver Darcy emails: YouTube has started to suspend comments on "most videos that feature minors" as the video-sharing platform continues to address accusations that it "aided pedophiles in finding clips of young children," as Kaya Yurieff reported here.
The move to disable comments, which YouTube said will take several months to complete, comes after several major companies -- including AT&T, Nestle, and Epic Games -- announced they were pausing advertising until their concerns were addressed.
>> YouTube PR: "We understand that comments are an important way creators build and connect with their audiences, we also know that this is the right thing to do to protect the YouTube community..."
>> "13.5"-year-old ASMR star Life with MaK told Katie Pellico, "It's devastating not being able to communicate with my fans, hear their thoughts, etc. That's why I do YouTube!" Known for her sassy "role play" videos, MaK says many of these have been deleted for "inappropriate content..."
>> The Verge's Casey Newton: "This would have been cool to do, like, 14 years ago."
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Full #'s for Wednesday's Michael Cohen hearing aren't in yet, but ABC and CBS each had 3+ million viewers during the testimony... CNN and MSNBC more than doubled their usual daytime audience #'s... (TVNewser)
-- Ben Shapiro tweeted: "Trump should be grateful for Cohen distracting everyone from the massive moral and diplomatic debacle that just unfolded in Vietnam..." (Twitter)
-- Correction: Yesterday I said the Cohen hearing was carried on Al Jazeera America, but sadly that channel closed up shop in 2016. I meant Al Jazeera English...
-- Warner Music is bidding for a "large minority stake" of a Saudi music company. This shows "continued Western business interest in the kingdom despite a journalist's murder by government agents..." (WaPo)
"The Leaks That Trump's Justice Department Prosecutes Are Mostly About Trump, His Cronies, and Russia"
That's the headline from The Intercept's James Risen... "Since Trump took office," he wrote, "six people have been charged in cases related to unauthorized disclosures of sensitive or classified information. Of those six, four have been charged in cases connected to disclosures related to Trump, the circle of people around him, and the Trump-Russia inquiry." Read on...
CPAC is underway just outside DC
Oliver Darcy emails: The annual Conservative Political Action Conference was in full swing here in National Harbor on Thursday. Conservative media stars like Laura Ingraham and the "Diamond & Silk" sisters addressed the crowd, feeding attendees red meat in the pursuit of scoring an applause. There was also a significant presence this year from The Daily Caller and Blaze TV. But, for the most part, my initial impression is that this year's conference lacks the energy and enthusiasm from previous years. That said, things could amp up later in the conference as Trump isn't due to speak until Saturday...
Bill Shine won't say if he agrees with his wife's conspiratorial views on vaccines
Darcy adds: One couple that was noticeably wandering the halls here at CPAC was Bill and Darla Shine. (It was unclear why they were at the conference.) I caught up with them in the afternoon, and I asked Bill Shine whether he shares his wife's conspiratorial views on vaccines. He repeatedly declined to address the matter. I also asked Bill Shine why he was not with many of his White House colleagues overseas at the Hanoi summit. He also declined to answer that...
--> The Shines were later spotted on Thursday evening at Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA party. Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle excited the crowd with speeches. While the event was attended mostly by a number of young conservative activists, some fringe right-wing characters were also present, including Jacob Wohl and at least one member of the Proud Boys...
| | Jonah Goldberg leaving NRO to start "independent conservative media company"
Axios' Mike Allen reports a "new conservative media company" is in the works. National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg is leaving to join former Weekly Standard EIC Steve Hayes. The two are planning a "reporting-driven, Trump-skeptical company" to launch as early as this summer.
Hayes tells Allen the startup will fill the "great appetite on the center-right for an independent conservative media company that resists partisan boosterism..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Parents, please stop freaking out over the Momo Challenge..." (CNN)
-- Laura Hazard Owen argues that local TV news stations are "playing a major (and enthusiastic) role in spreading the Momo hoax..." (NiemanLab)
-- InStyle's Laura Norkin helped to announce Friday's launch of "Time's Up Healthcare." Eight women in the heathcare field are leading a conversation about harassment and discrimination, "demanding safe, equitable workplaces, now..."
-- ICYMI: Medium CEO and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams announced "all Medium paywalled stories are now free and unmetered when you're coming from Twitter..." (TechCrunch)
CBS covering "Leaving Neverland" ahead of Sunday premiere | | Katie Pellico writes: Ahead of HBO's Sunday night premiere of "Leaving Neverland," Gayle King sat down with Wade Robeson and James Safechuck for the first time since they shared their harrowing story in the soon-to-be-aired documentary.
"CBS This Morning" has been covering the "Neverland" doc all week. An interview with director Dan Reed aired on Tuesday, and an interview with with members of the Jackson family aired Wednesday. The family members called Robeson and Safechuck "opportunists" and "admitted liars." King's interviews with the two men aired on Thursday...
>> Reviews of the doc are coming out. Wesley Morris' pained and personal "Leaving Neverland" review is likely to be instructive for all of us watching this weekend: "It's not a feat of investigative journalism so much as an act of bearing witness..." (NYT)
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Dr. Suess's Horse Museum" will be released on September 3 -- it is based on an unfinished manuscript from the famed children's author... (AP)
-- Meet the woman that "stands between the world and Beyoncé," publicist Yvette Noel-Schure... (ELLE)
-- Tune in: Lisa Respers France talked with Ari Shapiro about Tyler Perry ending his Madea franchise for an "All Things Considered" segment set to air on Friday morning...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Katie Pellico:
-- The streaming platform Tubi just purchased about 400 episodes of shows from NBCUniversal, including "Battlestar Galactica," "Xena: Warrior Princess," and "Bionic Woman"... (Multichannel News)
-- A third "Walking Dead" project is in "active development," AMC Networks confirmed Thursday. The word comes on the heels of new numbers showing rising ad revenue, despite the show's drooping ratings... (Deadline, THR)
-- In the run up to her surprise midnight album release, Solange is "taking over" a page on BlackPlanet, the platform that was a "precursor to Facebook, MySpace, and even Friendster," founded in '99 for black Americans... (Paper)
Following up on Emma Thompson's letter
Brian Lowry emails: WaPo's Steven Zeitchik looks at Emma Thompson's refusal to work with John Lasseter, which Melissa Silverstein of the feminist group Women and Hollywood called "a game-changer." I might not go that far just yet, but talent would seem to hold the key -- if people can rally and organize them -- in preventing or imposing conditions on those like Lasseter seeking to mount comebacks after #MeToo-related allegations...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Lady Gaga has addressed speculation that she and Bradley Cooper are in love. It's called "acting," people! (CNN)
-- In the end, an artist known best for his work with Auto-Tune won "The Masked Singer" over two singing sensations... (CNN)
-- Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch is back on the market, with the price reduced by 70%... (CNN)
-- Welcome to March. Here's some of what is streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu during the month... (CNN)
| | | That's a wrap! Thanks for reading. Email me with feedback, story ideas, anything. See you tomorrow... | | | |
